Three or four flights: one flight from late June to early August in the mountains and far north, three to four flights in May to September on the Colorado plains, April-October in lowland California (Scott 1986). One flight early May to late September in the Pacific Northwest (Pyle 2002; James and Nunallee 2011), one flight late May to early August in British Columbia (Guppy and Shepard 2001).

Diagnostic Characteristics

Best told by the upper surface being relatively black in the basal and median regions of the wings, the underside of forewing with a yellow bar at the outer end of the discal cell running perpendicular to leading edge of wing, antennal knobs largely dark brown or black.

Species Range

Montana Range

Year-round

Range Comments

From central Alaska and northern Yukon Territory south to southern California, southern Arizona, and southern New Mexico, east to the western edge of the Great Plains (Scott 1986; Glassberg 2001; Pyle 2002); to at least 3355 m elevation in Colorado (Brown 1957). In Montana, widespread in the western 2/3 of the state (Kohler 1980; Stanford and Opler 1993). Mostly common to abundant (Glassberg 2001).

How Associations Were Made
We associated the use and habitat quality (common or occasional) of each of the 82 ecological systems mapped in Montana for
vertebrate animal species that regularly breed, overwinter, or migrate through the state by:

Evaluating structural characteristics and distribution of each ecological system relative to the species' range and habitat requirements;

Examining the observation records for each species in the state-wide point observation database associated with each ecological system;

Calculating the percentage of observations associated with each ecological system relative to the percent of Montana covered by each ecological system to get a measure of "observations versus availability of habitat".

Species that breed in Montana were only evaluated for breeding habitat use, species that only overwinter in Montana were only evaluated for overwintering habitat use, and species that only migrate through Montana were only evaluated for migratory habitat use.
In general, species were listed as associated with an ecological system if structural characteristics of used habitat documented in the literature were present in the ecological system or large numbers of point observations were associated with the ecological system.
However, species were not listed as associated with an ecological system if there was no support in the literature for use of structural characteristics in an ecological system, even if point observations were associated with that system.
Common versus occasional association with an ecological system was assigned based on the degree to which the structural characteristics of an ecological system matched the preferred structural habitat characteristics for each species as represented in scientific literature.
The percentage of observations associated with each ecological system relative to the percent of Montana covered by each ecological system was also used to guide assignment of common versus occasional association.
If you have any questions or comments on species associations with ecological systems, please contact the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Senior Zoologist.

Suggested Uses and Limitations
Species associations with ecological systems should be used to generate potential lists of species that may occupy broader landscapes for the purposes of landscape-level planning.
These potential lists of species should not be used in place of documented occurrences of species (this information can be requested at: http://mtnhp.org/requests/default.asp) or systematic surveys for species and evaluations of habitat at a local site level by trained biologists.
Users of this information should be aware that the land cover data used to generate species associations is based on imagery from the late 1990s and early 2000s and was only intended to be used at broader landscape scales.
Land cover mapping accuracy is particularly problematic when the systems occur as small patches or where the land cover types have been altered over the past decade.
Thus, particular caution should be used when using the associations in assessments of smaller areas (e.g., evaluations of public land survey sections).
Finally, although a species may be associated with a particular ecological system within its known geographic range, portions of that ecological system may occur outside of the species' known geographic range.

Maxell, B.A. 2000. Management of Montana's amphibians: a review of factors that may present a risk to population viability and accounts on the identification, distribution, taxonomy, habitat use, natural history, and the status and conservation of individual species. Report to U.S. Forest Service Region 1. Missoula, MT: Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana. 161 p.

Females lay eggs in clusters (to 235 eggs per cluster but usually 30-40 eggs) on the undersides of host plant leaves, sometimes very close to the ground. Eggs hatch in 6-9 days. Larvae gather into groups and cover themselves in communal silk nests. Feeding occurs both diurnally and nocturnally. Larvae reach L3 instars by about 36-40 days post egg hatch, at which stage they diapause. Development to L4 instar began about 26 days after overwintwering completed, L5 in another 11 days, and pupation in 20 days after molting to L5; adults emerge from pupae (eclose) in abut 33-40 days, depending on temperature (Scott 1992; James and Nunnallee 2011). Males patrol for females low to the ground throughout the day in grassy swales, meadows, valley bottoms (Scott 1975b, 1986).

Pyle, R.M. 2002. The butterflies of Cascadia: a field guide to all the species of Washington, Oregon, and surrounding territories. Seattle Audubon Society, Seattle, Washington. 420 pp.

Scott, J.A. 1975b. Mate-locating behavior of western North American butterflies. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 14:1-40.

Scott, J.A. 1986. The butterflies of North America: a natural history and field guide. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.

Scott, J.A. 1992. Hostplant records for butterflies and skippers (mostly from Colorado) 1959-1992, with new life histories and notes on oviposition, immatures, and ecology. Papilio new series #6. 185 p.